Tesla delivered approximately 24,500 vehicles in Q3, of which 15,800 were Model S (64%) and 8,700 were Model X (36%). This was an increase of just over 70% from last quarter’s deliveries of 14,402. Tesla only counts a car as delivered if it is transferred to the customer and all paperwork is correct; about 5,500 vehicles were in transit to customers at the end of the quarter. These will not be counted as deliveries until Q4.

Production rose to 25,185 vehicles in Q3. This was an increase of 37% from Q2 production of 18,345.

Tesla expects Q4 deliveries and production to be at or slightly above Q3, despite Q4 being a shorter quarter and the challenge of delivering vehicles in winter weather over holidays. Tesla is maintaining its guidance of 50,000 vehicles for the second half of 2016.

Starting in Q3, Tesla quarterly financial releases will no longer include non-GAAP revenue and related financial metrics resulting from vehicles leased through banking partners or that include resale value guarantees.

This is very good news. The 25k cars a 100k USD each make 2.5 billion USD a quarter and about 500 million USD in gross profit that are needed to support the funding of further expansion of production.

Tesla has reached a critical level of production that means they now employ specialist in every field there is for long-range BEV production. This makes it easier to grow and they can start to enjoy the low cost per unit that follows with mass production. More automation will be possible. Said in another way, going from 0 to 100k unit per year is much more difficult than going from 100k to 1 million units per year. That Tesla made it to 100k per year is almost a miracle.

There is still much room for growth in sales of Model S and Model X. Tesla still does not have a truly global distribution, service and fast charger system. Musk has said Tesla may sell as many as 240k Model S and Model X combined per year when their distribution system is truly global. The most important think for Tesla now is to get that Model 3 production started without any errors that require callbacks and then finalize the making of a fully self-driving autopilot with all the necessary redundancy so that their cars will be allowed to drive without a person in the car so they can be operated as taxis.